Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Procrastination is an evil habit in students. As a professor, I see it too often. It all too often is really the result of the student not coming to grips with some other problem. He or she is overwhelmed with classes, or learning disability problems or personal issues, and is not going to the Dean of Students to ask for help (or coming to me to tell me they have problems, either!). And so, they dawdle along, not turning in the paper, and the class ticks away until I have no alternative in fairness to other students but to award the procrastinator an F. I really hate that!

A student who does not learn to deal with habits of procrastination in school obviously is a walking time-bomb as an attorney. I would not want to have such a person as a lawyer or as a partner or associate! It is only a matter of time before they lose a case for failure to timely plead and/or suffer a malpractice suit because of the malfeasance.

I wish I were better equipped to help chronic procrastinators deal with what is a true and deep problem. All universities have campus counselling centers. The problem is two-fold: 1) They are often overwhelmed with undergraduates; and 2) Law students are loath to go outside the law school.

Here are some possible websites that might be helpful:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination#Resources Wikipedia has a lengthy article all about procrastination and its causes and outcomes. But this helpful section lists resources -- books, organizations and websites. Go here first. Then, look at these other links if you don't like Wiki's.

http://www.procrastinators-anonymous.org/ Appears to be a true self-help organization. Has a number of web-based self-assesments and chats for support. Lots of information. Appears to fly off a living organization based in New York City.

http://p214.ezboard.com/bprocrastinationsupport Appears to be a chat community support group. The core is a chat community but it has a library of helpful tips and messages, mottos and a section on video game addiction, which could certainly be a source of a lot of procrastination. I tootled around a bit and it loaded very slowly into the subsections. It has a section "Just for Students" and another "UK Discussion" which might be of interest to overseas readers of this blog. This website appears to just be threads of chat, though; understand before you go; seems kind of young to me.

http://allpoetry.com/group/2188 Here is a chat group that asks you to certify that you are at least 18 to join, and focuses on student, but is open to others with procrastination problems. Not just for poets.

http://www.closerlook.com/perspective/art_procrastinators_anon.php This is either a review or a disguised advertisement for a software package designed for palmpilot OS to help you manage your time better. It actually might be helpful for procrastinators, if you like this sort of technology.

There may be more places to go as well. I just put off looking. Sorry -- I couldn't resist. Forgive the terrible joke!